| Show Michigan Today S M algan makes a major part of the worlds air prepared Pre partA by national boclear Boc Soc letre washington LA C W ru ice lct GREAT company of michigan R A pioneers were recently honored when the Lumb ermens memorial overlook overlooking king the au an sable river was dedicated little did monsieur jean nicolet Kl colet the first white man to set foot OR on michi blicht gan in 1034 or the hardy pioneers who later laid a firm foundation upon which the state was built suspect that today their crude camps would be sites of great american cities joined by a splendid network of 0 fine highways and in its infancy michigan Il chig it n was a huge buge lumber camp today its industries are legion detroit industries alone normally employ some workers who are massed in ul units its attaining to or in a single establishment it Is of course her automobile industry which predominates in this mass employment when the future state was surrendered by the british in 1706 nobody attached undue importance to a village named detroit with its inhabitants and an area less than a square mile skip years and detroit reappears as the nations fourth largest city with an area of 0 more than square miles a population of more than one and a quarter million and an industrial product value ot of a year approaching the city by lake steamer one beholds a striking panorama the canadian side shows many miles of green meadows while the american side reveals a gradually intensifying spectacle of mammoth cranes towering stacks vast factories all of Indu bewildering panoply lest the motorcar bulk disproportionately tiona tely on oits skyline it should be remembered that the cites major manufacturing plants include 35 lines that fall into the million dol lars a year class of productivity in fact ever since the days when detroit made the first gold pens ran the first refrigerator cars and built among the earliest of Ble sleeping cars and tradition adds mixed the first ice cream soda the michigan metropolis has been a plexus of diversified manufacturing detroit oits remarkable growth ner her growth measured in terms of population has increased more than per cent during this century indeed lier her present roll of industrial operatives surpasses by more than GO her total population of 1000 within the past ten years the office cloud has taken its place in de skyline and apartment hotels and hotel skyscrapers cannot be reared fast enough to keep pace with her growth in fact oits rapid changes in physiognomy justify the english writer who remarked of american cities I 1 wrecked rec e buildings u of spring up like mushrooms one turns gratefully from oits traffic choked thoroughfares into that loveliest retreat of all her 33 acres of park space delle belle isle in trading eight barrels of rum three rolls of tobacco and six pounds of war paint tor for the indian owned belle isle the cites forefathers achieved SOMe something thill not lot to be express expressed eally by its present valuation 0 of many millions of dollars for belle isle park Is at once the workers restful avalon treasure hunting childhoods pirate lagrand lal lair rand and every orles ones ench enchanted anted island with song birds as arfeld and caged bears as calibani Cali Call bans baus what more intriguing than a wooded island park canalized canali zed for canoeing dotted with picnickers stoves and visited by a symphony orchestra athla on the edge of a great industrial city pontiac Pont lac a town founded in the early bourn boom period leaped into the general expansion frenzy by taking out th the e states first railroad charter in six years later work was begun ou on the detroit pontiac railroad presently many a pioneer plon cor upon hearing the first locomotives distant shriek was seizing s his gun gud to git the war bar with the strident voice great state for lumber the or original ina track of wooden tron fron shell ted rails was soon discharging ripped ott fragments fragment s of sheathing through the car bottoms these snake ke heads as the flying fragments were called caused many a basua casualty ity among the passengers until the D A lio I 1 came handsomely to the rescue with aa a new and elegant car whose flooring smothered the snakehead snake head hend 0 offensive afe n s I 1 v e through rall rail connection with the vast cast was established by the completion of the great western railroad in 1851 nowa nowadays days the mates transportation Is served by lines operating miles motor conches coaches miles and electric lines 1000 1090 miles ciery cery city it seems must make mal 0 o something aud and her very capital Is not content to make only lawa lansing normally has bas hands bands engaged in industries mainly the automotive or auxiliary thereto producing an annual output valued at though Lan landings sings forests foresta have long since yielded to the spacious epa cloua avenues radiating from her lawn sur bur rounded state house and tho though ugh the cry tor for reforesting refo resting the state Is widespread the capital and her sister cities rank among the count rys most beautifully tree shaded communities sometimes appearing as it if buried in III greenery and for the most part displaying regularly spaced maples along folia foliage roofed streets towns thus preserve a souvenir ot of the great logging area ot of their state stat e forest primeval nieva 1 lay n ith pine and softwoods soft woods mainly to the north of parallel of latitude and w 11 ith the hardwoods mainly to tho the south of it A century ago her area was still 97 per cent timbered in the expansion period that followed the civil war the state loomed up as the great pine producer eastern farmers turned pioneer and trekked MIchigan ward for their fractional investment in the feet of timber that rose north ot of saginaw naw the prairie states were calling tor for timber and was massed in big stands with easy river access to the great lakes up sprang camps employing loggers plank roads were laid through the wilderness in 1873 1875 there were SO 30 solid miles ot of logs in the au ali gres for more than 30 years men chopped and saws screamed until in 1890 pine lumbering reached its peak with feet feel transition to manufacturing but the young states transition period from lumbering to manufacturing wai not accomplished without growing pains lter her forests shorn a host ol of lumber towns Luding ludington to n cheboygan sheboygan bay city maniske e alpena muskegon sa saginaw anaw relapsed temporarily into stagnation or ruin the story of muskegon Is typical ner her glories fled her people trekked and grass grew in her streets then thee slowly she rebuilt herself on the th deserts left by vanished sawmills how the woodworking automotive and other industries have lifted the once ruined town to her present prosperity Is one of the most striking stories in michigan annals saginaw naw once such a sawmill city that her shore area wa was s materially enlarged by filling in the shallow lagoons with incalculable tons of sawdust represents a similar rise fall and comeback today to day she normally pays more in freight bills on her au an tomi tive and other products than her hei tamed famed lumber cut was worth 40 years yeara ago flint took refuge in carria carriage g e building many a town started diver diversified rifled woodworking as a stopgap stop gap citizens at ludington manistee and elsewhere bored the earth produced brines and made the steam of lumber mills evaporate the brine into salt sall there was a statewide state wide spectacle ol of michigan remaking herself but not until around the turn of the present century did she set a firm foot on the industrial ladder up which she has bag since made so spectacular nn an ascent where the mint grows southwest of lansing the indian place name of kalamazoo beautiful water still holds true by reason of tile the cold springs which once refreshed the red man and nowadays refresh a n muck land celery crop valued at upward of the same muck region puts michigan topmost along with northern indiana in peppermint these two sections produce for pharmaceutical and other purposes 85 per cent of the united states supply Kalama zoos paper factories which have produced bond and book stock for 50 years instance how michigan turned to manufacturing when her lumbering peak had bad passed grand rapids furniture market comprises an all international a aggregation grega of manufacturers buyers and salesmen from a score of states and from european countries come the he displays of furniture find and interior decoration these are disposed on the vast floor door spaces of 20 factory show rooms slid and ten specially built exhibition buildings the buyers of whom are sometimes present hall hail from aery state la in the union and from half a dozen foreign countries its 75 furniture factories employing some people represent an an annual products value of about A large preponderance of hollanders who still nourish the ittie old craft spirit tradition la Is to be found among the local furniture and cabinet makers akers Di |
